Three days before the awful death of French student Philippine de Gerin-Ricard, I stood at the precise spot where the cyclist was killed, outside Aldgate East station, watching the cyclists and the rest of the traffic.

Philippine’s is the first death at this point but it is not the first serious cycling accident. Twice here, in the space of about 50 metres, there are conflicts between the hundreds of cyclists going straight ahead on Cycle Superhighway 2 and the heavy traffic on the inner ring road, forced by a cat’s cradle of gyratories to turn across the superhighway to go north.

I was on the pavement that Tuesday because we have decided the roads in this area must change. I could tell you we made the decision three days before Philippine’s death but that would be wrong. We decided it four months ago. In his vision for cycling in London, published in March, the Mayor specifically named Aldgate — in which we include this stretch of road — as one of “London’s worst junctions”, which needed “early and major improvements” to become “safer and less threatening for cyclists”.

We are tackling it in two parts. A few yards to the west of where this death happened, the City of London, with funding from TfL, will sweep away the frightening gyratory that encircles Aldgate Tube station. Aldgate High Street and St Botolph Street will both become two-way. Cyclists will no longer have to filter into the middle of fast-moving traffic. There will be a new public square by the church, with a north-south cycle route through it, on what is now three lanes of tarmac.

The plans, though a significant improvement on now, are still a work in progress. As we’ve told City of London, in our opinion the scheme still does not do enough for east-west cyclists on Aldgate High Street; but the City of London has a strong, award-winning track record on cycling and I believe we will work together to reach a decent conclusion.

On the eastern part, Whitechapel High Street and Cycle Superhighway 2, TfL has already conducted an outline study which concludes that it is capable of a “substantial upgrade” and at the end of April I asked it to work this in more detail. The improvement of the existing superhighways is, again, a promise in the Mayor’s March cycling vision.

I am also discussing whether we can remove the turning and conflicting movements on this part of the inner ring road, taking northbound traffic straight across from Leman Street to Commercial Street exactly as southbound traffic already goes.

I share cyclists’ concern about safety. I also say that it is worth keeping the danger in perspective. Philippine’s was the first death on a Boris bike in 25 million journeys and almost three years. It was the fourth cycle death this year; by this point in 2012, there had already been nine.

I share cyclists’ impatience for change. That change is coming. That is why we launched our cycling vision; that is why the Mayor has protected it from cuts in the spending review.

But changes to something as complicated as the road network have to be thought through; they cannot happen overnight, or even in the four months since the launch of the vision. The worst outcome would be a botched instant solution which actually made things more dangerous.